Electroluminescent devices are well-known for their utility in providing light emissions. Among the emitting materials useful in such devices are bis(azinyl)amine-BF2 complex, where the boron atom is complexed by two ring nitrogens of a deprotonated bis(azinyl)amine compound. Pending and commonly assigned U.S. Ser. No. 10/183,242, filed Jun. 27, 2002 CIP of U.S. Ser. No. 10/086,085 filed Feb. 28, 2002 teaches a method of preparing bis(azinyl)amine-BF2 complexes by reacting BF3 with a protonated bis(azinyl)amine compound in toluene as an organic solvent. Sathyamoorthi et al. (Heteroatom Chemistry 1993, 6, 603) describes the synthesis bis(azinyl)amine-BF2 complex using toluene and dichloromethane as an organic solvent. While these methods produced the desired product generally in satisfactory yield, they gave low yield, typically below 5%, when the selected deprotonated bis(azinyl)amine compound was substituted with bulky groups such as phenyl, t-butyl or mesityl groups.
It is a problem to be solved to provide an efficient process for the synthesis of bis(azinyl)amine-BF2 complexes, especially those with bulky substituents.